Queen Elizabeth II, who has died at the age of 96, was the longest-serving British monarch. From the uncertain beginnings of her reign, acceding to the throne at the age of 25 after the unexpectedly early death of her father George VI in 1952, to final years troubled by public outrage displayed towards her son Andrew and grandson Harry, she came extraordinarily far, both as a monarch and as a human being. Her Majesty single-handedly transformed an increasingly moribund institution in the process.
It is a testament to the Queen’s success in her role that republicanism has not had any serious discussion in British intellectual or social life in the past seven decades. Even after the moment of greatest reputational danger for the Queen personally – the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, and the unchecked criticism of the Palace’s high-handed and emotionally tone-deaf attitude towards the national mourning that followed – there was no public upsurge in a demand for the monarchy to be replaced by a presidential system.
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